Prague Orientation

On Thursday afternoon we arrived in Prague. After figuring out the exchange rate (100 Czech Koruny equals about 4.50 Euro), we got ourselves some Czech Crowns, and headed to the taxi stand outside the airport. Many travel sites and guidebooks say that taxies in Prague are rip offs. But, since I didn't have time to fully research other options for how to get to the city center, we decided to take a cab anyway. The trip was 600 Koruny, which is about 25 Euros. That's still a reasonable price in my book.
After settling into our hotel, we decided to spend the afternoon getting our barrings. Later in the trip we'd discover that Prague is pretty easy to navigate. But we seem to always take the hardest, longest, or least traveled path. Even though we picked up a map at the hotel reception, we didn't ask them to show us the best way to the old town.
Instead of taking a left, which would have gone directly to a bridge across the Vltava River, we went right and rambled through a bunch of quite, residential neighborhoods before stumbling upon the main tourist center. Staying off the beaten path worked out to our advantage though. We had lunch in a local-feeling pub, which was terrific. I had goulash and Kevin had a dish that the waitress translated as "pork stump."

After lunch we found the old town we wondered it's charming, cobble stone streets. Prague is one of the few cities in Europe to have suffered from very little bombing damage during World War II since the city had no war industry. The result is that the city's buildings still have their original detail and the streets veer off with no apparent rhyme of reason.
We were lucky enough to come to the astrological clock at the top of the hour, getting to see the characters emerge from their roost. On the way back to our hotel, we head across the Charles Bridge as dusk turned to dark. With the Prague Castle a glow in the background, our first day in Prague turned out to show off a city even more beautiful then I expected.